A well-played doubles match is typically a fast-paced and highly entertaining affair featuring accurate serving, powerful ground strokes, and forceful volleys. There are a number of reasons professional tennis players choose to enter the doubles draw. For many players doubles serves as practice for their singles game, a place where they can hone their nets skills under game pressure. For early round losers in the singles draw it’s a chance to earn some dollars since they are already at the tournament site. And then there are the doubles specialists who devote all their resources to playing doubles and who do it well enough to earn a decent income.
Are you missing great tennis doubles matches?
Some teams come together by chance and play together occasionally while other teams form and stay together on a long term basis. A great tennis player does not always make the best partner. Since most pro players grew up mastering their singles game, the transition to doubles can be challenging. The best doubles players are those who can communicate with their partner especially during the heat of battle. Jack Sock (U.S.A.) and Vasek Pospisil (Canada), the #5 ranked team on the ATP tour, credit their friendship off the court with helping them stay relaxed on the court.
In real life, as opposed to the professional tennis player life, the majority of league matches are doubles matches. As many players find singles too strenuous as they get older, doubles offers a great alternative, as it is both less demanding and more social. And although the game of the social player may be slower with shorter points there is a lot that can be learned from watching the pros play, especially in regards to communication and positioning.
During two weeks at the end of May, tennis fans were focused on the French Open. Hours and hours of daily television coverage of baseline rallies that in some matches seemed to go on for days, unless someone made an error or actually moved forward in the court and hit a winner. Meanwhile, doubles matches were playing to empty bleachers on courts with no television coverage. And that is such a shame.
The past few years have seen some of the lower ranked players on tour join forces to form the most formidable teams since the days of John McEnroe and Peter Fleming and the Woodies (Australians Mark Woodforde and Tom Woodbridge). McEnroe and Fleming hold 57 doubles titles, six of those at the Slam level, four Wimbledon trophies, and two US Open trophies, mostly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Woodies hold 61 ATP titles together, in the same era.
The American Bryan twin brothers team, Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan, has been sitting at the top of the doubles rankings for a number of years. It helps when your partner has the same genetic makeup as you while the righty and lefty combination makes a challenging team. The twins have won a record-setting 103 doubles titles together and at the end of 2014 they finished as the #1 ATP doubles team for the tenth time. But they are starting to be challenged much more now and this year they have not captured a Grand Slam title yet and so they look to Wimbledon to change that.
After teaming up for the first time at Wimbledon last year after both had lost in the singles draw, Pospisil and Sock surprisingly claimed the title, doing so in dramatic fashion. “Popisock” defeated the Bryan twins in five sets in the final. But Sock and Pospisil didn’t stop there. Their partnership continued through the summer where they remained unbeatable. After claiming the title in Atlanta they were defeated in the finals of Cincinnati by none other that the Bryan brothers. The Popisock winning streak ended but they continue to play together. This year they took the title in Indian Wells where they again defeated the Bryan brothers in the early rounds. The Australian Open men’s doubles title was won by Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, both of Italy, and the French Open men’s doubles was won by the team of Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. All of these results translates to what could be an intriguing men’s doubles tournament on the grass at SW19.
In an effort to encourage more players to partake in the doubles draws the ATP and the WTA adjusted the format of the matches. Deuce points are played as sudden death points with the receiving team deciding which player will receive the serve. In mixed doubles the man always serves the the man and the woman to the woman. This avoids long games with multiple deuces. All matches are a best of three sets but if a third set is required it takes the form of a super tiebreaker, first team to 10 points by at least 2 points. The number of sets in championship matches varies by tournament. Wimbledon is an exception where all men’s doubles are the best of five sets.
These adjustments have definitely made the matches faster and even more spectator friendly. But in my mind there is a disconnect between the new and improved doubles matches and media coverage. Relatively few doubles matches receive television coverage and yet a fan can watch an entire match in less than two hours and then go out and hit the ball. But some singles matches can last three, four, five and more hours, taking up the entire day. Often doubles matches are featured as the appetizer match before a big match and the real crowds don’t show up until the main match takes the court. Alternatively the doubles match is offered as dessert after the main singles course and the stadium empties leaving the diehard fans.
So if there is any message to this post here it is: If you are lucky enough to visit a tournament site this summer, make sure to visit the outer courts and take in some doubles matches. I guarantee you will be highly entertained and gain a new appreciation for the game.
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